Page 10 - EW March 2025

Editorial

AGA KHAN IV: EXEMPLARY MUSLIM LEADER inational Aga Khan schools, hospi-
tals, housing development banks and
loans disbursement societies which
he death in lisbon, portugal of tant role in the lead up to India’s in- ensure that all children of the com-
Prince Karim Aga Khan IV at dependence and attended the 1931 munity everywhere receive excellent
Tage 88 on February 4, didn’t get Round Table Conference in London education, medical care and housing
as much media coverage in India as it together with Mahatma Gandhi. Ex- and business development finance at
merited. For sixty-eight years Prince ceptionally, Mohammed Shah was a subsidised interest rates.
Karim spiritually and temporally champion of primary education and At the very top, the Aga Khan is ad-
guided the small, globally dispersed gender egalitarianism, and ensured vised by a council of highly educated
Nizari Ismailiasm Shia Muslim com- that all in his small flock of Ismaili alumni from the world’s best univer-
munity of Middle East and subconti- Muslims received good education sities on ways and means to develop
nental origin. Despite the estimated which served as a strong building good relations (often through pro-
15 million Ismailis dispersed across block for the future prosperity of this moting infrastructure projects) with
35 countries in Central and East Af- small community spread worldwide. political leaders in countries hosting
rica and South Asia, Middle East, Prior to his death in 1957, he super- Ismaili communities. Moreover, in all
Europe, North America and Austra- seded his two racy sons, and decreed countries national councils chaired by
lia, over the past six decades, Aga the appointment of Prince Karim, successful businessmen, ensure that
Khan IV transformed his struggling, then a Islamic history student at Har- no Ismaili household is without good
scattered followers into arguably the vard University, as his successor. quality shelter, clothing, education
most progressive, well-educated and Under the sect’s charter, most Is- and medical care.
affluent community within the global mailis voluntarily pay-in a reported Under this model Prince Karim —
Islamic Ummah whose number is es- 10 percent of their annual incomes a ruler without a geographic state —
timated at 2.5 billion. to the Aga Khan. From these contri- transformed the Ismaili sect into the
Equipped with excellent trading, butions Prince Karim accumulated a world’s most modern, progressive
soft skills and emotional intelligence, princely fortune estimated at $12 bil- middle class Muslim community. A
Ismailis prospered modestly in far- lion (Rs.1.05 lakh crore), mostly in- good development model for India’s
flung territories under the guidance vested in the global Aga Khan Devel- other Muslim sects/communities suf-
of Prince Karim’s grandfather, Sir opment Network (AKDN). Since then fering indifference of educated Mus-
Sultan Mohammed Shah (1877-1957), over the past half century, AKDN has lims and oppression of anachronistic
Aga Khan III who played an impor- built a large number of non-denom- clergy, to emulate.

PM: TIME TO ESTABLISH INDIAN DOGE powerful nation.
This is right time for the BJP/NDA
government at the Centre to take a
or people who value social skills Therefore, immediately after his leaf out of the Trump government’s
and refinement, America’s new- election, he established a new De- playbook. According to Prabhu Chaw-
Fly re-elected President Donald partment of Government Efficiency la writing in the New Sunday Express
J. Trump is a difficult man to like. He (DOGE) chaired by billionaire busi- (February 16), while the Trump ad-
comes across as a swaggering bully in- nessman Elon Musk, with the brief ministration comprises 15 ministries
tent on instilling fear into government to cut the Federal government’s es- and the UK 20, the Government of
employees and heads of state abroad. tablishment expenditure by a mas- India is run by 55 ministries with
America’s 46th president is only sive $2 trillion, a sum equivalent to over 100 departments. Entitled to
too aware that the United States is the 50 percent of India’s GDP. Although dozens of servitors, motor cars, un-
world’s wealthiest, economically and America is a free enterprise economy limited domestic and foreign travel,
militarily most powerful nation, and with very few public sector enter- every minister including a plethora
he wants every other country world- prises, the Federal government has 3 of junior ministers of state, costs the
wide to acknowledge it. Sometimes million well-remunerated employees public exchequer Rs.3-4 crore annu-
one wonders whether he is aware that on its payroll and its annual govern- ally, writes Chawla.
he occupies the world’s most powerful ment expenditure aggregates an esti- Maximum governance at mini-
political office, and isn’t play acting mated $6.8 trillion. Therefore cutting mum cost was a major poll promise of
in The Apprentice, a television real- government flab and expenditure to Prime Minister Modi when he swept
ity show that brought Trump, a flashy release dollars to upgrade America’s General Election 2014 and again five
former real estate developer, into very deficient (by developed OECD years later. However government and
America’s national limelight. and European standards) public the bureaucracy — a major stumbling
However, there are some good health, housing and education sys- block to industrial growth, especially
qualities in every individual. Trump tems was long overdue. According to labour intensive MSMEs (micro,
is a straight-talking businessman to official government data there are small and medium enterprises) — is
with healthy contempt for sly career almost 1 million (771,480) home- more bloated and ubiquitous than
politicians given to wasting taxpayers less people in the US and 26 million ever.
dollars on self-aggrandising schemes without health insurance cover in the Time to establish our own DOGE,
and causes. world’s richest and militarily most PM.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2025